Echoes and Emotions
by The Writing Prokaryote
Summary: [Oneshot] Despite Orochimaru's best efforts, the echoes of Team 7, as well as the emotions that the snake Sannin so despised...they never really left Sasuke. [I do not own Naruto, just this story of mine. (C) Copyright.]


I do not own Naruto.

* * *

When Orochimaru first saw Sasuke, he thought he had found a gem, a bright, sparkling treasure that was hope and destiny and knowledge and the world, all contained within the body of a young boy, with hair has dark as the night sky and eyes of coal, with the potential of burning from pitch black to crimson within a matter of seconds.

Itachi was a miracle—a young and able body with transcending abilities, a child who's skills were unrivalled. But Itachi was also an untouchable miracle, or perhaps, a miracle that could not be touched without destroying it. A miracle like his Edo Tensei—a revival jutsu that retrieved the life of one, in exchange for the death of another; an imperfect technique. Orochimaru could not take Itachi's body without damaging it, something that was too much of a price to pay.

Sometimes, though, Orochimaru wondered if Sasuke was really the right choice.

When Sasuke had arrived, Orochimaru had been nothing short of delighted—the way his black eyes glistened with hatred and desire, the way the moment those eyes saw him, red fire erupted and drowned what little humanity seemed to be left in there, engulfing those shadow-filled orbs with the ruby tint of blood.

But then those same eyes had fallen, vermillion giving way to a weak, fragile noir that shone with unshed tears, the paramount strength in them draining away with fatigue and sorrow and accursed, abhorred regret. The boy fell with his sharingan, crumbling to the floor in such an unsightly way that Orochimaru couldn't help but _cringe_ in disgust.

"Take him away." He had ordered Kabuto, sighing as the man dragged the unconscious Uchiha away.

* * *

Orochimaru's tutelage to Sasuke was harsh, unrelenting, like the bitter cold of the mountains of Shimo no Kuni that _(his)_ Team 7 _(…no, not his Team 7)_ had visited once on a mission.

 _(Not_ ** _his_** _team 7, not this cold, cold person's team 7, not the team 7 of the boy with the flaming sharingan. Team 7 belonged to Uchiha Sasuke…not_ ** _him…not what he had become_** _.)_

Sasuke grew under it, flourishing like a rose in the middle of spring, blooming like none other, yet having the thorns to stop anyone from touching him.

 _(Sasuke made sure that this included Orochimaru, made sure that the snake man would_ ** _never be able to lay a hand on him._** _)_

Orochimaru's tutelage was painful, not unlike the chilli sauce that his father loved and he hated, not unlike the spicy miso ramen that Kakashi-sense…Kakashi had made him buy once.

 _(Orochimaru said that he would have to abandon those worthless emotions, and, after telling him that, engaged Sasuke in a spar that gave him three cracked ribs, a shattered kneecap, a punctured lung and a broken jaw.)_

 _(Sasuke never called Kakashi 'sensei' in front of Orochimaru again.)_

 _(But_ ** _Sasuke never called Orochimaru 'Sensei' either._** _)_

* * *

Sasuke learnt to ignore the pain from his snake mentor's teachings, gaining bruise after bruise, scratch after scratch, until he eventually didn't get any battle wounds at all.

Kabuto healed him each time, making sure that his body was flawless, without scars, the glowing green of the mystical palm making all the cuts disappear like magic, like Sasuke hoped the pain in his chest would. The glasses-wearing man told him that it was for 'Orochimaru-sama', smiling obligingly as Orochimaru dropped Sasuke's battered body in front of the silver-haired man with the cutting words 'heal him'.

 _(Sasuke wondered if the silver-haired_ ** _boy_** _believed in his own_ ** _lie._** _)_

* * *

Orochimaru's tutelage was also fruitful. Within a year of apprenticeship, Sasuke had surpassed many of the test subjects that Orochimaru kept within his base, beating up one after another and stepping over their ( _broken, limp, cold,_ ** _dead_** _)_ forms in order to beat up _(_ ** _kill_** _)_ another, leaving a trail of bodies in his wake. Pleased, Orochimaru sent him to the chuunin exams held in Kirigakure that year to test him and Sasuke complied, masquerading as a brown haired boy with large, green eyes.

 _(Sakura went home with the Chuunin title that year, gleeful and speaking of a nice brown haired boy with eyes like her's who had saved her during the second round, and had accompanied her the rest of the way, teaching her various really cool medical techniques that he said he'd learnt from a guy who was named after a helmet.)_

 _(Sasuke's actions were later discovered by an unpleased Orochimaru.)_

 _(This earned him another set of broken ribs, a few more stab wounds from Kusanagi, and the blank stare of a tired Kabuto.)_

 _(Sasuke_ ** _smirked_** _at the medic, nursing a red cheek. For a brief moment, he caught a glimpse of a small smile in return_ ** _._** _)_

* * *

Sasuke, within the next year and a half, had also mastered various forms of the Chidori, changing and altering various jutsu from the Sannin's library with ease. Taijutsu became as natural as breathing to him, and his chakra reserves grew and grew along with his body, shooting up like a weed in summer.

 _(As he grew stronger, Orochimaru became weaker and weaker.)_

 _(Sasuke would also find scrolls about the weaknesses of the 'Furō Fushi no jutsu' 'accidentally' lying around his room, or information about when Orochimaru would be at his weakest.)_

 _(Kabuto's smiles towards him would get less cold, less harsh, and the healing of the man would become less perfect.)_

 _('You remember what you have done with scars—they're like a picture book…a memory of the past.' The medic would say quietly to Sasuke, when no one was hearing.)_

 _(When he_ ** _thought_** _no one was hearing.)_

* * *

During October of the second year, Kabuto suddenly changed. The man that Sasuke had come to known during his stay with Orochimaru had become a still, lifeless boy that was not the Kabuto who had not-so-perfectly healed his scars anymore, who had smiled at him. All the scars that Kabuto had purposely left on his body was then healed up by the 'new' Kabuto.

 _(The scrolls that had randomly appeared stopped too.)_

 _(After that, Sasuke hated summer.)_

* * *

A couple of months later, Sasuke killed Orochimaru. He would have killed Kabuto too, but as he reacher up…

 _(Unbidden, the memory of Kabuto smiling rose up to his mind.)_

His hand froze.

 _'Kabuto…do you remember?'_

Blank, blank, _blank_ eyes looked back at him, and false words that Sasuke _knew_ were not his tumbled from Kabuto, and Sasuke left the man with Orochimaru's dead body to look at.

 _(He'd already both of his families…was he going to loose_ ** _him_** _too?)_

And so Sasuke fled, ran like the wind to the base where they kept Suigestu, one of Sasuke's only surviving contacts of the whole base.

Suigetsu, who's smile was wide.

Suigetsu, who's smile was just like the sun.

 _(Suigetsu, who's smile was not quite like Naruto's.)_

He went after Karin next—an girl who's hair wasn't quite pink, who's eyes were too red to be green, who's surname was Uzumaki _(and that was all that mattered)_.

Karin was useful—a source of noise and nostalgia, and Sasuke would smirk when she bickered with Suigetsu, another wistful memory rising up, one that he quickly brushed away.

Juugo was the last—a tall man, a person much like a mountain, steady, kind, a source of warmth and stability for the rest of the group.

His hair was orange, and, for some reason, reminded Sasuke of a book. When he mentioned it to the man, Karin had looked at him in disbelief, and had muttered something about all males being perverts.

Sasuke decided that, as guardian-like as Juugo was, he simply wasn't nonchalant enough, and was always too on-time for Sasuke's tastes.

 _(Sasuke had long since given up on trying to convince his mind that he didn't miss his old team.)_

 _(That, however, did not mean that he had to say so openly.)_

 _(No matter how much he wanted to.)_


End file.
